Acquiring Modernity: Kuwait's Pavilion at the 14th Venice International Architecture Biennale

Commissioned by the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters, Kuwait’s pavilion at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia will take place from June 7 to November 23. Housed in the Arsenale, Acquiring Modernity is Kuwait’s second participation after Kethra, which debuted at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition in 2012. 

Alia Farid, "A composite image of Princess Diana's anticipated
visit to the Kuwait National Museum," 2014.

Under the supervision of deputy commissioner Zahra Ali Baba and the creative direction of artist-curator Alia Farid, Acquiring Modernity will address the exhibition’s overarching theme of 100 years of modernity from 1914 to 2014. The pavilion will explore symbols of modernity in Kuwait’s architecture, with a special focus on Michel Ecochard’s Kuwait National Museum, designed in 1960 and completed in 1983. 

Representing Kuwait at the Biennale Architettura 2014 is a team of 21 individuals engaged in diverse areas of research: Aisha Alsager, Dana Aljouder, Sara Saragoça Soares, Hassan Hayat, Nesef Al Nesef, Noora Al Musallam, Amara Abdal Figueroa, Gráinne Hebeler, Abdullah AlHarmi, Samer Mohammed, Nima Algooneh, Liane Al-Ghusain, Adel Al-Qattan, Wafa’a Al-Fraheen, Dalal Al-Sane, Noura Alsager, Maysaa Almumin, Cherihan Nasr, Fatema Alqabandi, Alaa Alawadhi, and Ghazi Al-Mulaifi. 

The pavilion will also feature collaborations with filmmakers Shakir Abal and Oscar Boyson, graphic design duo Dexter Sinister, and artist Abdullah Al-Awadhi.  Accompanying the pavilion is a research publication available in English and Arabic, a film set for release in November, and a joint installation with the Nordic Pavilion. 

For more detailed information about the curator, participants, or the pavilion, visit website: www.acquiringmodernity.com. 

For Hire | Rickshaw Drivers in Bangalore, India

For Hire is an animation that tells the story of a day in the life of a Bangalore, India Rickshaw driver through the eyes of a European visitor. These green, yellow, and black, rickshaws are described as the "blood in the veins of Bangalore". The animation was created by Berlin-based animator Xavier Xylophon.

Watch the video below:

Portrait with 3,500 Lipsticks

For a show at Birzeit University, Palestinian artist Amer Shomali chose to create a portrait of Leila Khaled, the woman known as the "poster girl of Palestinian militancy." Unlike a typical portrait, Shomali's medium of choice for this project is lipstick. Rather than painting the iconic member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine with paint or even drawing her image with lipstick, the artist uses a custom-built board on which fully intact tubes of lipsticks are affixed - 3,500 tubes, to be exact.

Using 14 different colours, Shomali has managed to recreate the famous image of the revolutionary woman wearing a kaffiyeh and holding an AK-47. Though it's not entirely clear why Khaled's pixelated portrait titled The Icon is made specifically out of lipstick, the piece is open to interpretations. One theory could be the intriguing and controversial juxtaposition of a powerful and independent woman with an item that is associated with frivolous materialism and femininity and how it parallels the contrasting image of Khaled herself, a woman adorned with a traditional Arad headdress typically worn by men while holding a destructive firearm.

Watch the time-lapsed video of the creation of the portrait:

[Words and Images via My Modern Met]

You might also like:
Picture an Arab Man | Addressing Stereotypes with Photography
Shirin Neshat | An Iranian Artist In Exile
Shirin Neshat | Women Without Men

Picture an Arab Man | Addressing Stereotypes with Photography

The portrait series, Picture an Arab Man, is a large body of work by Tamara Abdul Hadi, which captures Arab men of diverse backgrounds. The series aims to break down stereotypes of Arab men by highlighting the sensual beauty of the Arab man. This is described as an unexplored aspect of their identity on the cusp of change in a society that reveres an out-dated form of hyper-masculinity.

The series features men in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Dubai, Palestine, and Canada including some from Iraq, Sudan, and Syria. In March 2012, photographer Tamara Abdul Hadi started a successful fundraising campaign to support the next stage of the project. The funds would cover general expenses and go towards the printing of a book. Tamara's use of photography to represent her subjects as diverse, candid men solely with their rich Middle Eastern heritage in common has truly and understandably resonated with many.

View photos from the series and hear more from her in the video below.

You might also like:

Shirin Neshat | An Iranian Artist In Exile

Shirin Neshat | Women Without Men

Tunes of the Week

Every week, Auburn Butterfly recommends four tunes for your enjoyment. These will come from a variety of genres particularly jazz, blues, soul, folk, and some latin-american and african genres.

From left to right, top-down:

African Skhits - wun.two (8 mins)*

Manu Chao: Bongo Bong 

Le Voyage en Afrique/A journey in Africa

King - The Story

*From a two-track album with clips of jazz and blues. More info and free download here.

Click on the album cover to listen to each song.

Shirin Neshat | An Iranian Artist In Exile

Shirin Neshat is an Iranian artist in exile known for her outstanding work in film, video and photography. She has been recognized with many awards for her dedication to reflecting "the ideological war being waged between Islam and the secular world over matters of gender, religion, and democracy," and because "the impact of her work far transcends the realms of art in reflecting the most vital and far-reaching struggle to assert human rights". In a TED talk presentation (posted below), Shirin Neshat explains the joys and struggles of her efforts to represent and speak for her Iranian people.

Also have a look at a previous post about Women Without Men, a film directed by Shirin Neshat. The film offers an exquisitely crafted view of women rights today in Iran, as compared to Iran in 1953. Read more on the film here. You can also read more on Shirin Neshat from an article written by G.Roger Denson at The Huffington Post entitled Shirin Neshat: Artist of the Decade.

Shirin Neshat | Women Without Men

Women Without Men is a film adaptation of a novel by Iranian author Shahrnush Parsipur, which tells the stories of the struggles of four individual women. Directed by Shirin Neshat, it offers an exquisitely crafted view of women rights today in Iran, as compared to Iran in 1953. Neshat explores the social, political, and psychological dimensions of her characters as they meet in a metaphorical garden, which serves as their escape. Women Without Men was an official selection for the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, Dubai International Film Festival, and for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Women Without Men trailer

For more on Women Without Men, visit the official website.